A Two-fer

"the love of one's country is a terrible thing"

Two Incredible songs, one great melody.

"The Patriot Game", written by Brendan Behan's brother Dominic, is a song that I have perfomed countless times since learning it in the late '70's. Sung from the perspective of a dying 16 year old Irish republican soldier it was popularized by the Clancy Brothers during the folk revival (before odes to the IRA became politically incorrect here) and remains a touchstone.

Here's a version that celebrates the horror of the Republican cause:


"The country I come from is called the Midwest"

Now, if you watched the Scorsese documentary of Bob dylan, you saw a lot of Liam Clancy talking about Zimmy's days in NY during the folk revival.

Bob heard The Clancy's perform the 'The Patriot Game' and quickly took that melody to muse on Vietnam-era America's self satisfaction, sense of itself as 'God's chosen' and the racism inherent in ours and all people's wars. He first performed 'With God On Our Side' at the Newport folk Festival with Joan Baez.

As we watch Christian America once again enter into a crusade against people darker than ourselves, people who believe in a strange god (because we can't really wrap our heads around the fact that Allah is the same god of Abraham that Moses and Jesus followed), people whose countries seem desperately primitive the song is timely timely timely.

GT12 Honoree Buddy Miller recorded this new version of Dylan's 'With God On Our Side' and you will thank me after you watch this. It is a bit lengthy but it will become a favorite.